Originally posted by lemon lime
Consensus? So in other words, if most or all of the worlds scientists agreed based on all of the recent evidence (spanning the last 50 years) that evolution could not have possibly occurred, then you would have no choice but to agree with them?
I mean really, when in history have a majority of the worlds scientists ever been wrong, about [i]anything[/i ...[text shortened]... nd ignore evidence that does not support their theories when looking for validation of a belief.
Tell me, when have the majority of scientists been wrong about a theory that turned out to be false? A theory, not a hypothesis. A theory that has stood up to test after test for a century, and fits empirical observation.
What creationists do these days (and this is almost exclusively a phenomenon observed in the wild among narrow niches of American Protestants) is cherry-pick from the vast body of scientific (and not-so-scientific) literature those occasional outliers authored by either cranks or mavericks who may say, for example, the Big Bang didn't happen, or evolution is bogus, or some other radical notion.
Okay, that's cute, but there's a reason why historical examples of the maverick being right and the scientific establishment being wrong are always famous and get us misty-eyed about the heroism of the underdog: they're rare. The odds are generally stacked against the maverick, because normally the scientific consensus is correct. And in every instance I can think of where the maverick turns out to be right, it's to do with some trifling notion people just assumed was true without having actually put to a test. Aristotle said heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects, and people believed it without question for 2000 years before Galileo falsified it with a simple empirical test. Physicists in the 19th century believed in an "ethereal ether" that pervaded space and propagated light as a wave. Astronomers up until the middle of the 20th century fancied the universe was static instead of expanding. Geologists took it for granted that continents were rooted in place and never moved. All untested assumptions, all wrong.
Again, when have the majority of scientists (over 99% in the case of evolution) been wrong about a theory -- an extensively
tested theory -- that turned out to be false?
There is absolutely no "trend" over the past 50 years, as you claim, of data and experiment pointing
away from the theory that biological evolution and speciation occurs. Some who frequent this forum routinely cherry-pick "findings" from cranks who in turn cherry-picked nuggets from valid publications and skewered out of context. Often the crank will, say, cherry-pick from the writings of a maverick who actually does have a Ph.D. in some kind of science (not necessarily remotely related to biology). The maverick might not actually be claiming that evolution is false, but rather has a quarrel with the scientific consensus concerning the precise
mechanism whereby evolution operates. The imaginative crank will twist the maverick's words to make it sound like a "biologist" has "disproven" evolution. This makes an impression on impressionable creationists, to be sure, especially if the maverick does indeed have a degree in biology. But it means nothing by itself. Just as the word of a botanist carries little weight in matters of zoology, so too should the word of an ethologist or ecologist be viewed with grave skepticism when it speaks on matters of paleontology or evolutionary genetics.